Children learn best through experience. You no doubt can recall telling your child not to touch something because it is hot yet they still kept reaching for it. It wasn’t until they had an understanding of what ‘hot’ meant, usually by touching something labelled hot, that they knew that touching something hot was painful and it would be best to heed your warnings. Then again they may have needed to touch it several times before they really got it! Of course, that kind of practical learning has its place but can’t be applied to every kind of situation. So how do children learn all the things they need to know? Much of what they need to know they learn through play. And toys, all toys but especially educational or learning toys, act as prompts to encourage your child to explore their talents and skills.
The kind of creative learning toys that your child will respond to best are those that allow them to discover and encourage their own unique learning style. Some children like to concentrate on one activity and explore all they can around that while others like to have a wide variety of choices so that they can easily move from one to another. For example, a child that likes to concentrate for long periods will probably enjoy a complicated puzzle (appropriate to their age) but a child who gets distracted easily would probably learn more with a range of simpler puzzles that get increasingly difficult.
When it comes to learning we all have a preferred method of taking in information. This doesn’t mean we can’t learn in more ways than one but there is usually one style of learning that we find easier than others. Some people like to hear things, others like to be able to apply information in a practical sense through touch, while others learn best by seeing, and others through logically laying things out. Children have a preferred learning style too, although this may not be as easily identifiable as it is in adults because different developmental stages involved different learning methods. For example, learning to talk is done aurally. It is not done through any formal teaching style.
Read on for more information on children’s educational toys.
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